JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Cascading melodies and sleight-of-hand solos that borderline comprehension, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones have been wooing and mystifying audiences for three decades now. The original lineup is back in the saddle—Fleck on banjo, pianist and harmonica player Howard Levy, bassist Victor Wooten, and his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten on the “drumitar,” a customized/synthesized percussion instrument. The quartet takes stage for The Center for the Arts benefit concert on Wednesday evening.
The level of talent in this band is off the charts breathtaking, and the veteran finesse of playing music together for thirty years is a rare thing in the music business. A sixteen-time Grammy Award winner, Fleck has incorporated the banjo’s original birthplace, Africa, into his music while exploring a world beyond traditional bluegrass into country, jazz, spoken word, old-time, classical, world music, and beyond.
“I feel the responsibility to contribute something meaningful and it’s very hard to satisfy my own critical nature,” Fleck told WXXI News last month. “I can end up disappointing myself, sorry that I couldn’t bring more, play better or write better. But I do enjoy the process. I miss it when I am unable to focus on music. I am always digging around, and looking for fresh areas to explore, as he is. Sometimes it’s learning a Beatles song, or a classical piece which opens things up, but usually it’s in the composition process where I find myself hitting paydirt.”
The band’s last studio album was 2011’s Rocket Science, which Jazz Times said “recaptures everything that made the Flectones so fresh, so innovative, so important during its first five years.” And while the band has not put out original music since then, the ability to ride preconceptions and shatter them has not stopped.
All proceeds from The Center Benefit will help to support The Center’s artistic, education, and community programs.
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Center Theater. Hors D’oeuvres and drinks will be served in the Center lobby starting at 6:30 p.m. an after party will follow in the lobby. Tickets are $178-$378 and available at JHCenterForTheArts.org.
